Japanese Tool Chest for my dominos

My wife got tired of the little tin box that our domino set came in – the lid didn’t latch down, so she had to wrap a large rubber band around it when we took it on travel. She asked me to make a wooden box for them with a “secure lid”. At the time, I was reading Christopher Schwarz’ posts about the traditional Japanese woodworkers’ tool chest, and thought this would be perfect for this application – if I scaled it down somewhat…

The chest is made from cherry with bloodwood handles, end pieces and lid stops. I through-mortised the ends of the box and also made the bottom double thickness and rabbeted it so that it fit up inside the carcase to give it more glue surface. Finished with Waterlox original.

I was originally planning to use a dovetail wedge on the top and cut the stops on the lid with the matching slope. But I found when the box was finished, that the friction of the top held it in place solidly. So I never finished off the dovetail wedge… but I have it downstairs in case the need arises.

Thanks Ted, I saw the dovetail cuts in the lid pieces. I would be afraid if with use over time that the friction fit might not stay as tight, I would keep the wedge piece “just in case” lol. Color match ;-)